Leaving the Forbidden City, which was still occupied by the Manchu barbarians, Wu Chaoyue pondered for a while, and simply ran to Sushun Mansion to wait for him to go on a business trip to see if he could bring back any good news for himself.

After mixing a lunch, when it was almost time, Su Shuncai returned home with a tired face, and saw Wu Chaoyue coming up to salute, Su Shun was not surprised, beckoned Wu Chaoyue into the back hall, and just sat down and said to Wu Chaoyue with an unkind expression: "Your business hangs!" is too young and has no experience in civil affairs, almost all of the voices in the military aircraft department are opposed, and King Huijun is even more resolutely opposed! The master can't make up his mind for a long time, and no matter how much I persuade the master, I can't make up my mind! So today things are not settled! ”

After that, Su Shun also grabbed the teacup and took a sip, never thought that the tea was too hot for the new tea, and Su Shun screamed and threw the tea bowl on the ground, and when the subordinates hurriedly came up to clean up, they were kicked by Su Shun as a punching bag, and then Su Shuncai said to Wu Chaoyue: "If you can't settle down today, things will only be more difficult to do in the future, those who don't like you, as well as my opponents, will definitely be connected to the fold to oppose, deliberately recommend others to make up for this lack of disgusting me and you, and then the six military aircraft will oppose together, It's even harder to get the master to make this determination! ”

Wu Chaoyue's face was also very ugly, and he asked in frustration: "Even Qi Liaozao Qi Zhongtang is against it?" ”

"Except for Prince Gong, who didn't say anything in the Military Aircraft Department, everyone else was against it." Su Shun replied angrily: "Qi Zhongtang also said directly, your talent and ability may be more than qualified for the position of governor, but at least you have three years of experience in civil affairs first!" Now put you in the position of governor of Hubei, it is a risk of the safety and stability of Hubei's ten prefectures and one state! ”

Even the chief military plane stood on the opposite side of himself, Wu Chaoyue was of course even more disappointed, and Su Shun complained again: "Today you are also in the Palace of Cultivating the Heart, what are you doing with such a timid talk, knowing that the master is worried that your teacher Zeng Guo will be in trouble, you should seize this point and make a big fuss, and directly tell the master that your teacher is unreliable, and only if you are the governor of Hubei can you reassure the master and the court, so that your hopes will be greater!" ”

Wu Chaoyue wanted to cry when he heard this, and said in his heart Su Zhongtang, you are a descendant of wild boar skin with pure blood, and you are a big celebrity in front of the ninth generation of wild boar skin, of course, you are not afraid of offending people, but can I compare with you? I shaved my head and I am my rightful teacher, I said bad things about him in front of Wild Boar Skin IX, and broke the rules of respecting teachers, and the saliva of the people in the world must not drown me?

After complaining secretly, Wu Chaoyue said: "Zhongtang, it's not that the lower officials don't want to speak freely in front of the emperor, it's that there are too many people in the Heart Cultivation Hall today, so many people are present, and the lower officials have to be cautious, if there were fewer outsiders at that time, the lower officials would definitely not speak like today." ”

Su Shun nodded, and also knew that there were a bit too many officials in the Heart Cultivation Hall today, and whoever spoke had to weigh the consequences. After thinking about it again, Su Shun said a little helplessly: "Let's do it, you wait patiently for a few days, I will try to say a few more words for you, and see if I can let you meet the master again." But you also have to be prepared, after all, you are too young and have no experience in civil affairs, so it is not ordinary to push you up. ”

When Wu Chaoyue nodded helplessly, Devil Liu, who had not spoken about the matter of the governor of Hubei today, also left the military aircraft department on a business trip, and coincidentally, when he walked out of the palace gate, Devil Six met Qi Liaozao, the chief military aircraft who had recently turned his face with Su Shun, and after politely greeting each other, Qi Liaozao wanted to get on the sedan chair and go home, but the devil Liu, who had been holding back the bad for a long time, seized the opportunity and greeted: "Qi Zhongtang, please wait a moment, can you take a step to speak?" ”

Looking at the devil Liu, who had always been low-key, very suspiciously, Qi Liaozao stopped and asked rhetorically, "Lord Gong, is there something wrong?" ”

"Regarding Tao Sipei, the envoy of Hunan, I don't know what Qi Zhongtang thinks of him?" Devil Six asked politely.

Although he was confused, Qi Liaozao still replied: "It's not bad, three years of performance appraisal and two years is excellent, during the Changsha War, although he was not the main general of the city, but he also assisted Zhang Liangji to stick to the city, and tried to ensure that Changsha was not lost, not without merit, and he was a competent official." ”

"This king sees it that way, too." Devil Ziliu nodded, sighed again, and said lightly: "It's a pity that he didn't get along with Zeng Shilang, when Zeng Shilang was training in Changsha, he was very vigilant about Zeng Shilang's large-scale expansion of the army, and he was always on guard, Zeng Shilang was forced to relocate the training site to Xiangtan, there are many reasons because of him." ”

"Is there such a thing?" Qi Liaozao asked.

Devil Ziliu nodded and said with a smile: "Hunan Admiral Bao Qibao has an old relationship with me, and he inadvertently mentioned it to me in his letters. ”

"Then why did the prince mention this matter to Weichen?" Qi Liaozao asked vigilantly - the old fox Qi Liaozao had already seen that the low-key devil six on the surface was actually a real ruthless character, otherwise, in the case of competing for the throne with Emperor Xianfeng, it would be impossible for the devil six to be stationed in the military aircraft department to control the power.

"It's nothing, I just want to remind Qi Zhongtang that Tao Sipei can be reused." The devil Liutu saw the dagger, and said with a smile: "You have political achievements and ability, but you are not in harmony with Zeng Shilang, Qi Zhongtang, you are so worried about Zeng Shilang, you might as well consider reusing this Tao Sipei." ”

After that, the devil six didn't talk nonsense with Qi Liaozao anymore, and immediately gave up his hand, and the old fox Qi Liaozao suddenly woke up after getting into the sedan chair, and scolded secretly: "Little slippery head, it's really ruthless enough, if you want to clean up Sushun but don't want to do it yourself, you can borrow the old man's knife!" ”

Secretly scolding and scolding, Qi Liaozao, who had already turned his face with Su Shun for the sake of Zeng Guofan's affairs, was still a little tempted, and secretly calculated: "If Tao Sipei is pushed up, you can not only jam Zeng Guofan's money, food, and military salary, prevent him from falling off, but also beat a dozen Su Shun's wanton abuse of private prestige, killing two birds with one stone, in fact, it is quite good?" ”

Devil Liu's stabbing in the back can be regarded as making Wu Chaoyue suffer, because of his age and qualifications, he couldn't suppress the teacher Zeng Guofan, and Qi Liaozao suddenly pushed out Tao Sipei, the Hunan inspector, to stir up the situation, and Wu Chaoyue's possibility of becoming the governor of Hubei is naturally much smaller.

The result of the three's struggle was chaos in the court, the next day's early court, when Emperor Xianfeng asked the hundred officials to discuss the candidate for the governor of Hubei, the civil and military officials who participated in the early dynasty were immediately divided into three factions, Qi Liaozao led a group of Qingliu Yushi to recommend Tao Sipei, Mianyu and Hua Shana and others resolutely recommended Zeng Guofan, Su Shun and Zaiyuan also brought their henchmen and cronies to support Wu Chaoyue, and they quarreled with each other and could not be separated. Emperor Xianfeng, who had very soft ears, was dizzy and difficult to choose, and the devil who was hiding behind and stabbing the knife was completely out of the way, smiling and watching the snipe and clam compete on the side.

The result of the controversy was that Wu Chaoyue was eliminated first, and of course he was eliminated first, his qualifications were too shallow to compare with Tao Sipei and Zeng Guofan, who had been in the government for more than ten or twenty years, and it was too appalling to serve as governor before the age of twenty, so no matter how much Su Shun and Zaiyuan praised Wu Chaoyue's outstanding military exploits, they could never bypass the two hurdles of age and seniority. In the end, even Emperor Xianfeng personally spoke, "Wu Aiqing is a loyal minister and a capable minister, but he is too young, and if he wants to be a governor, he has to wait at least three years later!" ”

After closing their mouths helplessly, Su Shun and Zaiyuan and others had no choice but to watch Qi Liaozao and Mianyu and others continue to perform, and then Zeng Guofan's backers quickly couldn't resist - they also had no experience in local governance, and the army expansion was too fierce, too fierce and too jealous, and Mianyu and Hua Shana and others were also a little lacking in confidence when speaking for Zeng Guofan. On the other hand, Qi Liaozao was righteous, insisting that Tao Sipei had military exploits and qualifications, as well as experience in governing places as a prefect, and was the ideal candidate for governor of Hubei, and Emperor Xianfeng, who was also very wary of Zeng Guofan, was also very tempted, and almost opened his mouth to agree.

At the critical moment, a miracle suddenly appeared, and Wang Maoyin, the left attendant who remained on duty in the military department, suddenly rushed to the Jinluan Hall with an urgent military situation in his hand, and said to Emperor Xianfeng: "Long live Qiyu, the six hundred miles of urgency sent by Heilongjiang General Yishan just now is an urgent military situation!" ”

"What emergency military intelligence? Say it! Emperor Xianfeng hurriedly asked.

"Six days ago, the gunboats of the Rakshasa State invaded the mouth of the Heilongjiang River, confronted our Qing army, and opened fire to provoke." Wang Maoyin replied quickly: "Who would have thought that the gunboats of the British and French would suddenly appear behind the fleet of the Rakshasa and fire their cannons to bombard the Rakshasa fleet, and the fleet of the Rakshasa country was caught off guard and was defeated by the fleet of the British and French and fled to Sakhalin. Later, the envoy of Yingyi and Fayi sent people to contact General Yishan, asking General Yishan to send troops to attack Sakhalin Island and recapture the occupied territory of our Qing Dynasty. General Yishan doesn't dare to be specialized, please show the emperor! ”

The Manchu Dynasty was in an uproar, and Emperor Xianfeng was even more surprised, and hurriedly snatched Yishan's military emergency report from the eunuch's hand to take a closer look, and saw that the content was indeed completely consistent with Wang Maoyin's introduction, and Emperor Xianfeng was also happy to slap the table and say happily: "Okay!" Unexpectedly, Wu Aiqing really said it! Yingyi Fayi's gunboat went north this time, and he really went to clean up the clown jumping beam of the Rakshasa Country for me! ”

"Wu Chaoyue understands that this is really rare." Seeing that the hope reappeared, Su Shun naturally hurriedly ran out to fight, and said as if he had smeared honey on his mouth: "My emperor is blessed with all the heavens, and Yangyi is willing to serve for me, and I will kill and control the Qing Dynasty, long live my emperor, long live long live." ”

The hundred officials hurriedly shouted long live with Su Shun, and competed to praise the Xianfeng Emperor's wisdom and martial arts and Hongfu Qitian, so that foreigners could also voluntarily help the Qing Dynasty fight. Emperor Xianfeng laughed, in a very good mood, and Su Shun took the opportunity to slander again: "Master, Wu Chaoyue is in the capital, why not praise Wu Chaoyue in the palace?" By the way, I also asked him how to deal with the aftermath with Yangyi in the future? ”

Emperor Xianfeng nodded subconsciously and was almost about to agree, but Qi Liaozao, who had already publicly broken with Su Shun, jumped out and objected: "Long live, this matter must not be, Wu Chaoyue asserted that Yangyi sent troops north to attack Rakshasas, although it was not without merit, but it did not make any contribution to the Qing Dynasty." Moreover, it was also because of his frequent contacts with Yangyi that he was able to know the purpose of Yangyi's troops, and if this matter was greatly praised and attracted to all Qing officials, the consequences would be unimaginable. ”

The viciousness of Qi Liaozao's stab is not below the devil six, Emperor Xianfeng hates the most is dealing with foreigners, and he also dislikes courtiers and foreigners the most, after his face changed, Emperor Xianfeng immediately waved his hand and said: "What Qi Aiqing said is extremely true, this matter is really not worthy of praise, Su Aiqing, you can praise Wu Aiqing for me another day." ”

Su Shun secretly hated Qi Liaozao but there was no way, he could only sing the promise obediently, but it was not bad, after being disturbed by this incident, Emperor Xianfeng also had no intention of continuing to discuss the candidate for governor of Hubei, and said: "Whether to let Tao Sipei be the governor of Hubei, this matter will be discussed another day, and more important things will be done first, Su Aiqing and several Aiqing from the Military Aircraft Department will go to the Heart Cultivation Hall with me to discuss the major matter of joining forces with the foreigners to recover Sakhalin Island, and everyone else will go back to rest and disperse." ”

The result of the discussion was that Emperor Xianfeng, who liked to shirk his responsibility, kicked the ball to his courtiers again, and asked Heilongjiang General Yishan to be responsible for contacting and negotiating with the Anglo-French combined fleet, explaining that as long as the Anglo-French combined fleet had no other additional conditions, Yishan could send troops to recover Sakhalin Island with the help of foreigners, and at the same time, Emperor Xianfeng also allowed Yishan to provide the Anglo-French combined fleet with food, coal and other combat necessities in the name of reward. However, Emperor Xianfeng clearly told Yishan that if the foreigners put forward any conditions such as the need to revise the treaty, they must immediately refuse and must not agree.

After the foreign policy was discussed, and the holy decree was sent to Heilongjiang in an expedited manner of 600 miles, Emperor Xianfeng, who was in a good mood, was relieved and issued an order to pass on the meal and reward Su Shun and Qi Liaozao and other military ministers with the honor of accompanying the meal. During this period, Su Shun has never forgotten about Wu Chaoyue, but unfortunately he has not been able to find a suitable opportunity to speak, and he is afraid of his political enemy Qi Liaozao making trouble, so he can only temporarily dispel this idea, and at the same time, Su Shun is also ready to fight for Wu Chaoyue's official position and fail, and begins to think about how to appease the loyal and obedient Wu Chaoyue, so that Wu Chaoyue can wait for future opportunities with peace of mind.

Accompanying the Xianfeng Emperor to eat is actually a chore, you must be careful and cautious, and the food is still some warm fire meals that I don't know how many times it has been heated, many of the model dishes that the Xianfeng Emperor has never touched have changed their taste, and they are quietly complaining about Su Shun and the devil Liu, and they hope from the bottom of their hearts that the Xianfeng Emperor will end the meal as soon as possible, so that they can go out and get some snacks to satisfy their hunger.

It's a pity that the Emperor Xianfeng, who is in a good mood, will be very interested in talking, and he has been talking and eating very slowly during the meal, and finally when the Emperor Xianfeng picked up the second bowl of rice, there was a fold in the military aircraft department, saying that Zeng Guofan once again reported the victory of the red flag, and won the battle in Tianjia Town, on the border of Hubei and Jiangxi. When Emperor Xianfeng heard this, he was overjoyed, and hurriedly said: "Quickly bring it, let me see what victory Zeng Aiqing has won?" ”

The eunuch hurriedly reported the military situation to Emperor Xianfeng, and Emperor Xianfeng took it and opened it to take a closer look, but looking at it, Emperor Xianfeng's face slowly changed, from red to white, from white to green, and finally when it turned from green to white, Emperor Xianfeng also swept off the dishes and chopsticks in front of him, threw Zeng Guofan's annunciation fold on the ground, and roared: "Bastard!" Bastard! What kind of red flag is this? What kind of victory is this?! ”

"Brother Huang, what's wrong?" Devil Six asked suspiciously.

"Zeng Guofan, a big bastard, obviously fought a big defeat, but he even dared to turn defeat into victory, and the red flag reported victory!" Emperor Xianfeng roared: "More than two hundred beheaded, just because the bandit leader Lin Fengxiang led the army to reinforce, and failed to expand the results!" And because the bandit leader Shi Dakai entered Tunjiujiang with the main force, the bandits were rampant, and he was forced to abandon the Malingao camp and transfer to Huangshi Port to re-arm! ”

"Retreating from Tianjia Town to Huangshi Port, more than 200 miles away, why didn't he dare to write on the fold, why didn't he dare to write on the excerpt, why didn't he dare to write about Qizhou without a base on the way, and he didn't dare to write a word about the number of his dead and baggage losses! He was a three-year-old kid who couldn't even tell if he was winning or losing?! These words are lively, and I am tired of reading the excerpts of the defeat! Do you need to look at him again?! ”

The faces of Devil Liu, Qi Liaozao and the others all changed, and they never expected that Zeng Guofan, who had won consecutive battles a few days ago, would suddenly fight such a big defeat, and fled hundreds of miles at once, and retreated to Huangshi Port near Huanggang and Echeng. And Su Shun was also shocked, but also immediately rekindled his hope, and said secretly: "God help me, good opportunity." ”

Sure enough, Emperor Xianfeng thought about it for a long time with a blue face, and then asked everyone: "Hubei long-haired thieves are regaining prosperity, how is it good?" ”

Everyone didn't dare to say anything, until Emperor Xianfeng was angry and asked again, Su Shun kowtowed and replied: "Master, the poor and virtuous wife, the national disaster and the good general, although Lin Fengxiang, the bandit leader who defeated Zeng Guofan this time, is brave and has repeatedly broken the Qing Dynasty official army, but his nemesis is currently in the capital!" ”

Su Shun didn't say who the person's name was, but Su Shun didn't need to say that Emperor Xianfeng also knew who that person was, and at the same time, Emperor Xianfeng suddenly remembered the words he whispered softly in his ear when he spent the night in the harem last night......

"Your Majesty, in fact, you don't have to be embarrassed about the selection of the position of governor of Hubei, as the so-called son of heaven and a courtier, since the position of governor of Hubei is so important, then you can only hand it over to someone you can trust, the courtiers of this dynasty who you personally promoted after ascending the throne, only such a cronie and descendant, you can rest assured that you can entrust Hubei."

At that time, because the piston movement was done too much, Emperor Xianfeng snorted a few times and fell asleep like a dead pig, failing to understand the meaning of the concubine's words. But at this moment, Emperor Xianfeng suddenly understood the deep meaning of these words - who is the descendant of Emperor Xianfeng who was personally promoted by Emperor Xianfeng after he ascended the throne? Zeng Guofan and Tao Sipei are not, they are both former ministers of the former dynasty left by the dead ghost Daoguang to the Xianfeng Emperor, Wu Chaoyue is the courtier of the dynasty who entered the office after the Xianfeng Emperor ascended the throne and succeeded to the throne, and he is also the descendant of the Xianfeng Emperor who was exceptionally promoted, and he has always been very competitive, loyal and capable!

Thinking of this, Emperor Xianfeng did not hesitate any longer, and immediately shouted: "Spread the decree, order Jiangsu to make Wu Chaoyue the acting governor of Hubei, rush to Hubei as soon as possible to take office, and lead the Hubei soldiers and horses to pacify the long hair in the territory!" (To be continued.) )